A. Recognizing African nation-states is a perpetuation of colonialism that makes African extinction inevitable.
Dr. Makau wa Mutua, Associate Director, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School, 1995 (WHY REDRAW THE MAP OF AFRICA: A Moral and Legal Inquiry16 Mich. J. Int'l L. 1113 Summer, lexis) The last decade of the twentieth century has seen a sharp increase in the number of new states, many of them a result of the end of the Cold War and the demise of European communism. n1 Not since decolonization have sovereignty and self-determination been such powerful currencies[*1114] in international discourse. n2 Now the protracted problems of the post-colonial African state have raised anew the meaning of state legitimacy and brought forward disturbing questions about the concepts of territorial sovereignty and statehood. n3 The juridical statehood attained with the decolonization of the colonial state has in the last four decades proven inadequate. n4 It is becoming increasingly apparent that these concepts and principles may have trappedAfricain a detrimental time capsule; they now seem to be straightjackets with timebombs ready to explode.The imposition of the nation-state through colonization balkanizedAfricainto ahistorical units and forcibly yanked it into the Age ofEurope, n5 [*1115] permanently disfiguring it. n6 Unlike their European counterparts, African states and borders are distinctly artificial and are not " "the visible expression of the age-long efforts of [the indigenous] peoples to achieve political adjustment between themselves and the physical conditions in which they live.' " n7 Colonization interrupted that historical and evolutionary process. Since thenAfricahas attempted, often unsuccessfully, to live up to and within these new formulations; all too frequently the consequences have been disastrous. The problems of the modern African state have been well documented, n9 with some analyses bordering on the apocalyptic. n10 Whatever the[*1116] severity of the prediction, it is undeniable that the survival of Africa is seriously threatened by corrupt and inept political elites, unbridled militaries, ethnic rivalries and conflicts, refugee flows, and economic misery. These have become chronic crises from which deliverance seems unlikely. As if to bear out the prophets of doom, the post-colonial state has recently collapsed in Liberia, Rwanda, and Somalia. n11 Others, such as Zaire, Nigeria, Sudan, Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia, and Kenya maintain a precarious balance on the political precipice. I argue in this Article that the post-colonial state, the uncritical successor of the colonial state, is doomed because it lacks basic moral legitimacy. Its normative and territorial construction on the African colonial state, itself a legal and moral nullity, is the fundamental reason for its failure. I argue that, at independence, the West decolonized the colonial state, not the African peoples subject to it. In other words, the right to self-determination was exercised not by the victims of colonization but their victimizers, the elites who control the international state system. As [*1117][See figure in original] [*1118] such, dependence continued under the post-colonial state, the instrument of narrow elites and their international backers. I concede that although other reasons, such as external economic factors and cultural disorienta-tion, have contributed to the crisis of the African state, they cannot be divorced from the crisis of internal legitimacy. I contend that foreign imposition of artificial states and their continued entrapment within the concepts of statehood and sovereignty are sure to occasion the extinction of Africa unless those sacred cows are set aside for now to disassemble African states and reconfigure them. I propose that pre-colonial entities within the post-colonial order be allowed to exercise their right to self-
Dr. Makau wa Mutua, Associate Director, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School, 1995 (WHY REDRAW THE MAP OF AFRICA: A Moral and Legal Inquiry16 Mich. J. Int'l L. 1113 Summer, lexis)
The last decade of the twentieth century has seen a sharp increase in the number of new states, many of them a result of the end of the Cold War and the demise of European communism. n1 Not since decolonization have sovereignty and self-determination been such powerful currencies[*1114] in international discourse. n2 Now the protracted problems of the post-colonial African state have raised anew the meaning of state legitimacy and brought forward disturbing questions about the concepts of territorial sovereignty and statehood. n3 The juridical statehood attained with the decolonization of the colonial state has in the last four decades proven inadequate. n4 It is becoming increasingly apparent that these concepts and principles may have trapped Africa in a detrimental time capsule; they now seem to be straightjackets with timebombs ready to explode. The imposition of the nation-state through colonization balkanized Africa into ahistorical units and forcibly yanked it into the Age of Europe, n5 [*1115] permanently disfiguring it. n6 Unlike their European counterparts, African states and borders are distinctly artificial and are not " "the visible expression of the age-long efforts of [the indigenous] peoples to achieve political adjustment between themselves and the physical conditions in which they live.' " n7 Colonization interrupted that historical and evolutionary process. Since then Africa has attempted, often unsuccessfully, to live up to and within these new formulations; all too frequently the consequences have been disastrous. The problems of the modern African state have been well documented, n9 with some analyses bordering on the apocalyptic. n10 Whatever the[*1116] severity of the prediction, it is undeniable that the survival of Africa is seriously threatened by corrupt and inept political elites, unbridled militaries, ethnic rivalries and conflicts, refugee flows, and economic misery. These have become chronic crises from which deliverance seems unlikely. As if to bear out the prophets of doom, the post-colonial state has recently collapsed in Liberia, Rwanda, and Somalia. n11 Others, such as Zaire, Nigeria, Sudan, Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia, and Kenya maintain a precarious balance on the political precipice. I argue in this Article that the post-colonial state, the uncritical successor of the colonial state, is doomed because it lacks basic moral legitimacy. Its normative and territorial construction on the African colonial state, itself a legal and moral nullity, is the fundamental reason for its failure. I argue that, at independence, the West decolonized the colonial state, not the African peoples subject to it. In other words, the right to self-determination was exercised not by the victims of colonization but their victimizers, the elites who control the international state system. As [*1117][See figure in original] [*1118] such, dependence continued under the post-colonial state, the instrument of narrow elites and their international backers. I concede that although other reasons, such as external economic factors and cultural disorienta-tion, have contributed to the crisis of the African state, they cannot be divorced from the crisis of internal legitimacy. I contend that foreign imposition of artificial states and their continued entrapment within the concepts of statehood and sovereignty are sure to occasion the extinction of Africa unless those sacred cows are set aside for now to disassemble African states and reconfigure them. I propose that pre-colonial entities within the post-colonial order be allowed to exercise their right to self-